FM2006
The first thing I noticed was a lack of the setup wizards. It’s something I’d never have thought about really, but the ability to just be able to whap in a few details about yourself and create your manager profile is something I did sort of miss. It was only a little thing, and something I don’t have to use once I’ve created myself in the game’s memory, but playing FM2006 is just a story of these little gripes.

When ’06 was released, everyone said the thing that it needed to change was the scouting module as it was outdated. Compared to even FM07 this is incredibly true. There’s just no feedback from the scouts at all apart from a generic “yeah, he’s good” and the (partial) revealing of stats. In short, thoroughly useless. Quite how anyone played LLaMa in this version I have no idea.

FM06 is full of these things. Things that were removed or changed and you never really noticed, but things that you rely on to function in the game world nowadays. Player interaction, for example, is almost non-existant. The match engine also feels clunkier, though not as clunky as I expected.

Another gripe (and this isn’t the game’s fault by any stretch of the imagination) tactics were almost alien to me again. Too many things had been “relearned” for me to fully enjoy the experience. FM07 was much more similar to ’08 in terms of tactical “logic”. An understandable but annoying side effect of engine evolution.

The only saving grace was the skin which, while nothing spectacular, was really easy to “read”. All the information that I wanted to find was simply accessable. And it looked far more graceful than the ’08 default anyway.

Was it fun? Was it easier? Was it a better or a purer game? I didn’t think so. What I saw was a previous generation. It was almost like using Win98 after using XP. No doubt, it’s a darn sight better than MS-DOS, but I don’t know - something is definitely missing from this game. At the time it was great fun, but when you go back you just realise how blind you were to the obvious faults in the game. And it’s a myth that the AI was easier to crack. At least, it was for muggins here.

FM2007
2007 stands up far better, in my eyes, and I’d even got to a point where I seriously considered re-loading it on my new PC to continue the save I was running. I’d plumped for Manchester United, plugged in my own tactic that I downloaded off the ‘net and went with it.

Scouting worked! The match engine worked! I had all sorts of shiny new toys like media interraction, setup wizards and feeder clubs. FM07 is very similar to ’08, and while ’08 has some features that I adore (like board confidence and improved media handling and team talks) I didn’t feel like I missed them as much. I was almost beginning to feel like those who said ’07 was a better game had at least a point.

But let me put it to you this way - I was comparing ’07 to ’06. Even before my PC crashed, I wasn’t playing a hell of a lot of Football Manager anyway. Compared to ’06, FM07 really was a huge leap forward, and those who at the time said there were too many “gimmicky” new features were simply wrong. There was very much a revolution here, taking the bits we all knew and loved from ’06 and transplanting them into a much more workable interface with much more sophisticated tools. Simply, going from ’08 or ’07 to ’06 is like trying to play with one hand tied behind your back. And so, ’07 looked so shiny and sophisticated compared to ’06, I was starting to fall back in love with it. It was like wanting to go out with Monica from friends after coming off the rebound from Hilary Clinton. It’s great, and so much better looking. Once you play ’08, though, you realise that Jennifer Aniston was so much hotter.

I’ve now reloaded ’08. It’s quicker, and it’s smarter. The match engine is more highly tuned, and while that makes it more difficult it makes it so much more enjoyable. On ’07 I was playing with a tactic set that I hadn’t used in so long I didn’t even understand it fully - it was just enough like ’08 for me to get it to work. But just by clicking the right option I was winning games pretty easily. In ’08, I know I’m more in control, with all the frustrations and joys that brings. I’m even more engrossed in this Manchester United save on ’08 than I’ll ever be in ’07.

Conclusions?
Rose-tinted glasses are a fine thing, but ultimately they do show the folly of human nature at times. FM06 is, with the experience of playing ’07 and ’08, nigh on unplayable. ’07 is a fine game, but since the 8.0.2 patch I can’t see me wanting to go back. I know many people have, and this is quite understandable. But for those that have, re-install ’08 and patch it and tell me you still prefer it. I’d be surprised if you do.

So what does SI need to do to continue to “progress”? Progress is a very modern ideal, and it’s the laws of nature that at some point and in some way a series will always take a step backwards, be it in terms of quality or enjoyment. I was worried with the out-of-the-box version of FM08 that this might have been that game. However, having played versions 6.0.0 and 7.0.0 of the game, 8.0.x still feel better to me. Obviously, the match engine issues are, quite rightly, well documented and criticised. But the game continues to provide new tools in a clearer and more concise way.

To make FM09 as un-put-down-able, however, I think SI need to provide us with more of these tools - make the game world even easier to navigate and interact with. Continue to hone the match engine (and most importantly, present it to us in a much more polished state), and continue to provide the great scouting and depth of data which (let’s be honest) is one of the biggest selling features of the game. Don’t give us more licenced leagues or more skins or superficial add ons - give us things we really want.

However, I’m confident SI will do that anyway - from my enforced travels through the past three years this week I’ve not noticed a single add on in ’07 or ’08 which has taken the game backwards or seemed out-of-place. If they can avoid the PR cock up of this year vis a vis the match engine, I think we’ll see very few people opting to play an earlier version of the sim.

Unless, of course, they play in spectacles with a faint red hue.